hich should
be absolutely at the king's control. In the war of Toulouse in 1159 the
problem was for the first time raised as to the obligation of feudal
vassals to foreign service, and Henry gladly seized the opportunity to
carry out his plan yet more fully. The chief vassals who were unwilling
to join the army were allowed to pay a fixed tax or "scutage" instead of
giving their personal service. Henry, the chroniclers tell us, careful of
his people's prosperity, was anxious not to annoy the knights throughout
the country, nor the men of the rising towns, nor the body of yeomen, by
dragging them to foreign war against their will; at the same time he
himself profited greatly by the change. The new system broke up the old
feudal array, and set the king at the head of something like a standing
army paid by the taxes of the barons.

Henry had, indeed, won a signal victory over feudalism. But feudalism had
no roots on English soil; it was forced to borrow Brabancons, and to work
by means alien to the whole feudal tradition and system, and Henry had
easily overthrown the baronage by the help of the Church. But in the
process the ecclesiastical party had learned to know its strength, and the
king had to meet a more formidable resistance to his will when, instead of
a lawless baronage, he was confronted by the Church with its mighty
organization, always vigilant and menacing. The clergy had from the first
looked with a very jealous eye on his projects. A sharp quarrel as to the
jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts had early arisen between Henry
and Archbishop Theobald, but the matter had been compromised for a time.
Thomas had taken office pledged to defend ecclesiastical interests, and he
was so far true to his pledge, that while he was chancellor he put an end
to the abuse of keeping bishoprics and abbeys vacant. He had, however, as
was said at the time, "put off the deacon" to put on the chancellor; and
in an ecclesiastical trial which took place soon after Henry's crowning,
he appears as an energetic exponent of the king's legal views. A dispute
had raged for years as to the jurisdiction of the bishops of Chichester
over the abbots of Battle. On Henry's accession Bishop Hilary of
Chichester vigorously renewed the struggle, and a great trial was held
in May 1157 to decide the matter. Hilary failing after much discussion to
effect a compromise, emphatically and solemnly declared in words such as
Henry was to hear a few ye